I'm sure most of you in the UK and Ireland (maybe elsewhere) have heard about this. You can hear it here on youtube.
Basically 2 (very high profile) radio/tv presenters Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross slagged off an old famous actor live on a radio chat show.
Anyway i thought it was pretty funny, and i knew it was a joke. Maybe it;s my type of humour, but having talked to many people now i think it's general consensus that it has all been completely blown out of proportion.
Russell Brand last night resigned from his position on the radio show and there are calls from people (even a motion in the UK parliament) to get Jonathan Ross fired from the BBC.
Are people really that bothered about it? Have they got little else in their lives to worry about?
When the show was aired live there were 2 official complaints made about the comments, then, at the weekend some newspaper reported about the comments made live on air and now all of a sudden there are tens of thousands of complaints pouring in. This shows that the type of audience that listen to the show actually didn't mind too much about the comments so imho all is good. It's the people that don't listen to the show that found it offensive, i don't think they have real reason to complain.

Any comments?

I Dont care about Russel, I Think hes so annoying, but i think they should give them both another chance.

BBC Should make them go back on The Radio, And Make them say sorry to everyone Who was listening to the show.

To be honest I've seen worse from comedians and radio hosts alike, yes this has been blown out of proportion and I don't think any action should be taken.

Yes what they did was somewhat childish and foolish on their part, and I'm sure they are both kinda regretting what they did, but it's done now and even Sachs doesn't wanna pursue the matter further, why not just leave it at that? They apologize, he accepts it and they get on with their merry lives.

It's a couple of comedians that make their living by being a bit outrageous going too far. The number of complaints on the night were 2, but the stiff upper lipped busybodys have seen it in the newspapers and decided to try and get a couple of people they don't like off TV, and now the complaints are up to over 30,000. Whoever allowed the show to be broadcast should be sacked, but Brand and Ross should be left alone. When people are trying to be funny they sometimes go too far and offend people, I remember Billy Connolly got into trouble for making a joke about a man being held hostage by terrorists, and nobody said he should retire from comedy after that.

Its been completely blown out of proportion. The PM was even commenting on it. wtf?

It's just another Daily Mail induced load of bollocks. Who really gives a toss. It was childish but slightly amusing. Jeez, we used to be known for having a sense of humour in Britain.

I think it was funny. And I actually like Russell Brand's weekly evening show. Not so keen on Ross's shows, but then I'm more a Steve Wright, Terry Wogan and Jeremy Vine kind of person (which makes me liking Brand's show even more bizarre!).

What is a bit off (and not bad enough to warrent enquiries, resignations etc) is that Andrew Sachs asked to not have the 'scene' broadcast, but they did anyway.

http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... mp;highlight=russel+brand

This is maybe not news but it has certainly got the attention of this community, one thread is enough. Oh and Brand is a twat

For those of you who couldn't remember who Andrew Sachs is like me, this is the role he is most well known for...(Manuel)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I_VYahjKldA

Quote from AlienT. :

http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... mp;highlight=russel+brand

This is maybe not news but it has certainly got the attention of this community, one thread is enough. Oh and Brand is a twat

I did a search for this and couldn't find anything. I can't help it if people dont use informative titles in their threads.

Quote from tristancliffe :

What is a bit off (and not bad enough to warrent enquiries, resignations etc) is that Andrew Sachs asked to not have the 'scene' broadcast, but they did anyway.

Yeah, I've not been following this carefully, so I was quite surprised to learn that he knew all about it before it was broadcast. Kind of takes the 'we were so offended' angle away from it, but at the same time makes me feel a little more sympathy for him and his lovely daughter... I mean it was very funny, but for someone to say "Look, I'd rather you didn't broadcast it" - well, that's where the real offence lies. No one likes to be ignored like that.

Makes it all the more relevant that Russell Brand should apologise in front of a picture of Stalin! Did someone mention the words "show trial"... I like him all the more for this little video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TMxh-BnyKKs

Screw the Daily Mail.

I prefer Ross to Russel, Russel just seems to go on about his penis and what not. Love Jonathon Ross's shows when he has boxers on and gets out the pads. Like it when he had Hatton was on, Ross got the pads out and Hatton didn't even hit them that hard and made Ross's hand hurt, not suprised.

Like I've already said, Russel will probrably just take his award winning, most popular Radio show to another channel, he produces it himself now, so resigining from the BBC will be no big deal.

The BBC have just lost one of their two most popular radio shows, that why I think Brand has quit before the BBC could fire him, denying them the opportunity to make a big deal out of firing him.

Interesting on BBC news tonight, they say how that there were only 2 complaints for the first few days, when the Newspapers published their articles about the incident, complaints shot up to 18k within a few days.

Just goes to show that a lot of the miserable old gits who write into newspapers dont care or know about what they're talking about, they just take pleasure in writing angry words.

In a 'Sun' video interview, Sachs grandaughter said she was pleased with the outcome, I bet she is, her and her little 'dance group' are now familiar to thousands, and I bet the Sun paid her a hefty sum for the interview.

Overall my opinion is that Brand didn't start the first phone call with any malicious intent, all he did was ask Andrew where he was and reminded him that he was supposed to be on the show, and then Ross piped up and it all went downhill from there.

Typical media circus whipping the Daily Express / Mail reading drones into a frenzy.

I bet 90% of the people who complained never even heard the damn sketch.

IMO BBC won't fire Ross because what will happen is that ITV will come along and offer him a megabucks deal and then BBC will lose a load of viewers on a Friday night,

Ross has ben suspended for 3 months.

Very very lucky man.

TBH Ross deserves to be punished the worst because it was him that actually brought it up while Brand was making the phone message.

Quote from 5haz :

TBH Ross deserves to be punished the worst because it was him that actually brought it up while Brand was making the phone message.

Punished? For what?

Neither of them deserved to be punished for anything. They apologised,Sachs accepted it. That should have been the end of it.

Frankie Boyle is offensive to Kerry Katona in every episode of Mock The Week. do we hear complaints?
Comedians are offensive to other people every day in their shows. Non of them get punished for it.

The whole thing is ridiculous. The Daily Mail has a lot to answer for, and quite frankly i find most of their articles offensive. Maybe they should be punished for some of the hateful, scaremongering lies they publish every day

Quote from nikimere :

I'm sure most of you in the UK and Ireland (maybe elsewhere) have heard about this. You can hear it here on youtube.
Basically 2 (very high profile) radio/tv presenters Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross slagged off an old famous actor live on a radio chat show.
Anyway i thought it was pretty funny, and i knew it was a joke. Maybe it;s my type of humour, but having talked to many people now i think it's general consensus that it has all been completely blown out of proportion.
Russell Brand last night resigned from his position on the radio show and there are calls from people (even a motion in the UK parliament) to get Jonathan Ross fired from the BBC.
Are people really that bothered about it? Have they got little else in their lives to worry about?
When the show was aired live there were 2 official complaints made about the comments, then, at the weekend some newspaper reported about the comments made live on air and now all of a sudden there are tens of thousands of complaints pouring in. This shows that the type of audience that listen to the show actually didn't mind too much about the comments so imho all is good. It's the people that don't listen to the show that found it offensive, i don't think they have real reason to complain.

Any comments?

Here's what went down

There are a decent amount of people that dislike Ross, and Brand. They have been waiting patiently for something to grab hold of to bring them down.

At the time of this broadcast it had about 2 complaints, but as soon as the paper got hold of it the angry mob had their chance... and BOOM 30,000 complaints a week later. They probably just read the transcript without even listening. And a transcipt is meaningless without knowing the conext of the situation.

What I love is the blatant hypocrisy of the papers. Basically saying the BBC is dumbing down, yet leading with that story against much more important news is dumbing down within itself.

I do feel however that dislike of the licence fee, and can understands people's frustrations. But this complete over reaction speaks volumes about how the people who complained!

No doubt though Sach's G Daughter is loving the extra attention. no doubt she'll be in all the next 'Celebrity 'insert generic reality show' shows. She is going to make a fortune, and ironically will cause greater embarresment to her G Father, who, if I am correctly in thinking, is famous for playing a somewhat offensive representation of Johhny Foreighner

Quote from The Moose :

The whole thing is ridiculous. The Daily Mail has a lot to answer for, and quite frankly i find most of their articles offensive. Maybe they should be punished for some of the hateful, scaremongering lies they publish every day

Well get a pen a paper and complain Give them a taste of their own medicine

Here's something I picked up on aswell that no one seems to have mentioned any where - Russell Brand made an interesting remark (and brief apology to Sachs before it all kicked off) about the [B]Daily Mail [/B and their somewhat dodgy history. [B]He referenced their sympathy towards a certain Oswald Mosley and the British Union Of Fascist[/B] in the 30s. I guess we know why the Daily Mail turned up the heat !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new ... ians-insulting-Queen.html

ffs! I think we need a plan of action to stop these complete werido's from wrecking everything on TV and Radio.

Quote from Intrepid :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new ... ians-insulting-Queen.html

ffs! I think we need a plan of action to stop these complete werido's from wrecking everything on TV and Radio.

"Hay I know, lets take something that isn't supposed to be taken seriously, and take it seriously!" :banghead:

It's ridiculous. I can't count how many times comedians have made jokes of the Queen before now. Its just madness.

Quote from 5haz :

Like I've already said, Russel will probrably just take his award winning, most popular Radio show to another channel, he produces it himself now, so resigining from the BBC will be no big deal.

The BBC have just lost one of their two most popular radio shows, that why I think Brand has quit before the BBC could fire him, denying them the opportunity to make a big deal out of firing him.

Interesting on BBC news tonight, they say how that there were only 2 complaints for the first few days, when the Newspapers published their articles about the incident, complaints shot up to 18k within a few days.

Just goes to show that a lot of the miserable old gits who write into newspapers dont care or know about what they're talking about, they just take pleasure in writing angry words.

In a 'Sun' video interview, Sachs grandaughter said she was pleased with the outcome, I bet she is, her and her little 'dance group' are now familiar to thousands, and I bet the Sun paid her a hefty sum for the interview.

Overall my opinion is that Brand didn't start the first phone call with any malicious intent, all he did was ask Andrew where he was and reminded him that he was supposed to be on the show, and then Ross piped up and it all went downhill from there.

Bolded parts are of significance.

The first two, the newspapers shouldn't really be called newspapers. Not the big ones anyway. (Newspapers are more like the local papers you get delivered by a spotty schoolboy)

More like overgrown gossip colomns. There are only a few that are in touch with the real world, most of them however (like The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star etc) are really written for morons. And often read by morons. Hence why they nearly always have a half naked hottie on the front cover, with big text about a sleazy sex scandal or something, which attracts the attention of the kind of person that likes that sort of thing. Ashamadly, I have to say that is the majority of the British public. We are a gossip country.

Jeremy Kyle show sums it up.

Newspapers pay a helluvalot for some of the bigger stories, I can imagine that this would have been quite hefty nideed.

Having not heard the show, I can't cast judgement on who's fault it was, but people need to realise that people joke, and that at the end of the day it's just comedy. Obviously at times, lines are crossed, but people have complained on things like this before (take Chris Moyles' thing a while ago on BBC Radio 1 where _apparently_ he made some homophobic comment. Again in a comedy fashion, but nothing happened. Why? It wasn't publicised half as much. Newspapers can make or break the career of anyone in the public spotlight.

But hey.

God sometimes I wish we all lived in the 1950's where everything was so god-dam boring, but there was none of this bullshit.

Quote from Shitty Country :

30,000 complaints

If you look at the bigger picture... 30,000 complaints out of 60,000,000 people isn't really anything to worry about. I thought that was a normal level of complaints for most things in this dump of a country.

I was hoping one of them would make a comment about why the prime minister felt the need to chip in with his opinion. I guess he got sick of everyone slagging him off for making mistakes, and decided to have a pop at some other people to divert attention from himself for a few days.

The real scandal is that Ross is getting paid £6m. A lot of us don't watch or listen to him at all but we're all paying for him through our license fee. Why exactly is he paid so much?

On topic, I don't think the sketch was funny but I don't think it was that offensive.

Quote from amp88 :

The real scandal is that Ross is getting paid £6m. A lot of us don't watch or listen to him at all but we're all paying for him through our license fee. Why exactly is he paid so much?

I wish they'd just call it Entertainment Tax. I wouldn't mind paying it, because the BBC puts out much more quality stuff than the commercial stations do, but at least be honest about what it is.